THE CHANCES of A&E being taken away from Fairfield Hospital appear to be growing slimmer following a robust statement from one of the decision makers.

THE CHANCES of A&E being taken away from Fairfield Hospital appear to be growing slimmer following a robust statement from one of the decision makers.

Keith Surgeon, chief executive of Heywood and Middleton Primary Care Trust and head of the consultation over the Healthy Futures plan to re-shape hospital and community health services, was responding to a former A&E nurse who claimed moving A&E from Fairfield to Royal Oldham would spell disaster.

Vera Stringer, former head nurse at North Manchester General's A&E unit, had said: "The impact of taking A&E away from Fairfield would be devastating, particularly where children are involved."

But in a statement to the Advertiser, Mr Surgeon stressed the committee which will make the decision had stated its 'preferred option' is to keep A&E at Fairfield. And even if the most controversial option was chosen - to concentrate A&E on the Royal Oldham site - there would still be urgent care centres at a number of hospitals, including Fairfield.

He said: "Urgent care centres would deal with around 85 per cent of existing A&E cases - it is not a case of closing A&E. A minority of seriously ill or injured patients would need to be transferred to the nearest specialist hospital.

"But this is something that is already commonplace within Greater Manchester as a whole. For example, patients with serious burns are taken to Wythenshawe hospital in South Manchester."

Mr Surgeon said the ambulance service had played an active part in discussions "and has extensive experience of safely and capably transferred patients to specialist centres. It is important that people get medical treatment quickly in emergencies, but it is equally important that they get the right treatment.

"For example, there are only a relatively small number of major trauma cases across the whole of Pennine Acute Trust each year. That might mean that hospital teams don't see more than one case every couple of months. It is much better for those teams to handle these complex cases more frequently, so that they can keep their skills sharp."

Mr Surgeon said all the proposals include substantial investment in community services - more than £100M to create 35 centres across the area, including one in Heywood.

"These centres would support an expansion of the type of treatment offered by community-based health professionals such as GPs, pharmacists, district nurses and health visitors."